POWER PLAY: Sprint's Fair & Flexible plan struck an aggressive blow to the category's standard rate structure based on plans that allow fixed numbers of minutes for a fixed price but then charge high rates for overage. More good news for Mr. Kelly, 45, is that execution was strong in an Olympic campaign asking children to predict how many minutes they would be practicing for a sport. Sprint also has continued to leverage leading-edge services in the marketplace, especially in the burgeoning data services arena.

DOWNSIDE: Sprint's customer service continues to be its Achilles' heel, and analysts warn the telco ignores the issue at its own peril. It's paying the price. Sprint's churn rate is among the highest of the major carriers, about 2.3% compared with Verizon and Nextel's industry leading rate of about 1.5%.